Lori Pike writes "ActiveState released the Perl Dev Kit (PDK) 4.0, which adds support for the Microsoft .NET Framework, Win 9x and HP-UX. Existing Perl scripts can now be turned into .NET components and used seamlessly in .NET Framework applications. Current users will find that PDK 4.0 creates Perl components on Windows that are 30% to 50% smaller.
More information is available."
This is Good News (no, really, I mean it)
Ovid on 2002-02-07T17:44:14
Do we or don't we? Some will, so resisting it may be like shoveling back
the ocean with a fork. I'm rather concerned about the .NET initiative since
it seems to merely increase Microsoft's power. However, with .NET, we could
write a Perl software service that people can access and utilize, even if
they don't have Perl installed. Perl seems to do a good job of "sneaking in
the back door", but maybe this can allow Perl to come out of the kitchen. I
don't know about you, but I am getting sick of people telling me that Perl is
not a real language and can't do serious work (ever notice how the harshest
criticism comes from those who don't know Perl well, or don't know how's it's
really being used?).
I can see it now, some Java developer gloating over his strong typing supremacy
and real exception handling (okay, that one hurts :) sitting down to write a .NET component and getting it done in a week. I sit down with Perl and get it
done in half the time with one third of the code. Maybe, just maybe, that
Java guy will finally "get it".
Disclaimer: I have no beef with Java. Like Perl, it has
weaknesses, but that doesn't invalidate the language as a whole. I don't think
I'm a language bigot -- well, don't ask me about when I developed in COBOL :).
I just drop this little note to point out that, in my opinion, developers in
other languages often fail to realize that Perl can operate in the same problem
space ("What? I thought Perl was sed++!"). Having an identical problem space
means a more meaningful comparison of solutions. This is great.
